A web-enabled device in its most basic form is a computing platform that provides a user with access to the World Wide Web. More specialized instances include web-enabled mobile telephones and web-enabled personal digital assistants (PDAs). The handheld devices are especially popular given their portability.
Web-enabled devices are expected to proliferate as prices fall and functionality increases. However, one hurdle impeding widespread acceptance is compatibility between services and the wide variety of web-enabled devices. The success of some web services and portable web-enabled devices are intertwined. For a particular service to be commercially successful, it is desirable for the service to be compatible with a variety of web-enabled devices and user expectations. Likewise, for a web-enabled device to be successful, the device must be compatible with a variety of services. The companies that provide the services and develop the devices are often faced with moving targets in terms of device capabilities and service requirements.
One choice for dealing with diverse devices is to implement applications in the JAVA™ virtual machine environment. The JAVA virtual machine provides a platform independent environment to host applications, However, even though JAVA works well for servlets and applets on desktop computers, JAVA is missing some infrastructure that is needed to support mobile execution of services. In particular, JAVA is lacking in support of transparent remote storage and disconnected operation.
For connection, storage, and other compatibility issues, prior solutions involved modifying the service application or modifying system software. One problem associated with these approaches is that access to the appropriate source code is required. In addition, the resulting solution may be platform dependent, which may limit the viability of the solution.
A system and method that address the aforementioned problems, as well as other related problems, are therefore desirable.